Sunday, December 28, 2008

2008 in Books


Some people keep track of the year that was in terms of major events. I’ll do that in my next post, but for now I’ll keep track by listing the books that I read this year. To paraphrase Bronson Alcott’s words, these books are associated with reality and chronicle my identity.

 

Here is a list of the books I read for 2008 (not including the old books which I re-read, and not including those tomes which I started but haven’t gotten around to finishing):

 

January

1.       A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

2.       Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

3.       The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

4.       Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

5.       Not Even A Hint by Joshua Harris

6.       Can Man Live Without God? By Ravi Zacharias

7.       Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald

 

February

8.       Miracles by C.S. Lewis

9.       The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

10.    The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World by Alister McGrath

11.    Your First Job: A Practical Guide to Success by Nelson T. Dy

12.    Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

13.    The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Ressurection

 

March

14.    Music Through The Eyes of Faith by Harold M. Best

15.    Equilibrium & Ultimatum (from Vol. II of Either/Or) by Soren Kierkegaard

16.    On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

17.    The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

18.    The Princess: Machiavelli for Women by Harriet Rubin

19.    The Moral of the Story: Learning from Literature About Human & Divine Love by Paul J. Wadell

 

April

20.    Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine’s Guide to Life & Love by Patrice Hannon

21.    Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

22.    Persepolis 2: Marjane Satrapi

23.    Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot

24.    Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? By Philip Yancey

25.    Dawn by Elie Wiesel

 

May

26.    Poems & Prose by Gerald Manley Hopkins

27.    Maria Montessori: Her Life & Work by E.M. Standing

28.    The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori

 

June

29.    Mila 18 by Leon Uris

 

July

30.    A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

31.    The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

 

August

32.    Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

33.    Captivated by John and Stasi Eldredge

34.    The Children Are Watching by Carlos Cortes

35.    Poems by C.S. Lewis

36.    Days of Reading by Marcel Proust

37.    Letters to A Young Poet by Rainier Maria Rilke

38.    Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

39.    All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

 

September

40.    The Watsons & Emma Watson by Jane Austen & Joan Aiken

41.    White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

42.    The Singer by Calvin Miller

43.    The Eternal Husband and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Pevear & Volokhonsky)

 

October

44.    Vita Brevis by Jostein Gaarer

45.    The Shack by William P. Young

46.    Marley and Me by Josh Grogan

47.    Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

48.    Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain

49.    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

50.    The Essential Kierkegaard by Hong

 

November

51.    How To Share Jesus by Dr. Isabelo F. Magalit

52.    Women on Fire by Lorna Kalaw-Tirol

53.    Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

54.    The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella

55.    Augustine The Educator by Eugene Kevane

56.    Maya by Jostein Gaarder

57.    Selected Poems by Christina Rossetti

58.    The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

 

December

59.    1984 by George Orwell

60.    The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel

61.    March by Geraldine Brooks

62.    When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom

63.    Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite by Paul Arden

64.    The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

65.    Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

66.    Eden’s Outcasts by John Matteson (à 2008 Pulitzer Prize in biography!! J )

 

Hurray! I met my one-book-a-week goal! J Though there were weeks than I would not get to read, I seized the semester breaks (and this Christmas break, tee hee) to pounce on the yummy volumes in my to-read pile.

 

Papa and Mama gave my sister and I two new bookshelves each for Christmas... the best gifts we received, this season! J Speaking of gifts... I swear, I’ve never received so many presents before in my entire life! Thanks to my students. They say there are two holidays wherein teachers are the recipients of a deluge of presents: Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Hehehe. The perks of the job!

 

So now I have my students’ generosity to blame for my bulging stomach (a lot of them gave edibles, which had to be eaten immediately to avoid spoilage). Let’s see if I can muster the motivation to go jogging (even a couple of times) this coming week.

 

On another topic: I’ve been delving too deeply on morose thoughts lately. And to my shame... I’ve been indulging in very un-Christian thoughts. Politicians beating up innocent civilians didn’t do anything to alleviate my year-end despondency. Hmmm... must be my December diet of books (except Calvin & Hobbes).

 

There are some days I don’t like myself very much. This is one of them.

 

23 comments:

  1. omigosh, gab! andami! sana ako rin :D

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  2. A list worthy of a polybibliogamic title. haha =P

    Makes me wonder, Gabi... what book were you reading when we began communicating? =D

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  3. Wehehe some of them were very thin books, Ciely :) I read myself to sleep kasi at night, so I get to put in around 15 minutes a day. That is, unless I get hypnotized by the lure of multiply and bloghopping. :p

    Do you guys live near a public library? I hear their collections are to die for in the US... I dunno about Canada. :)

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  4. A list worthy of a polybibliogamic title. ;-)

    Gabi, this makes me wonder what book you were reading when we first began communicating. =)

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  5. Hindi ka naman obsessed kay C.S. Lewis 'no? Hahaha.

    Pahiram ako ng "On Chesil Beach" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" next year. I think gagawin ko ding New Year's Resolution ang makatapos ng atleast 1 book per week.

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  6. wow!!! so many books! someday, i hope to read half as much as you, haha.. go c.s. lewis fans!!!!!!!!

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  7. yay, one book a week!!! way to go, gabi =) ---> although it's not surprising naman! it's our favorite activity in the galaxy!

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  8. wow i haven't been keeping track of my books T_T
    ang saya naman...pahiram ng screwtape letters ha!

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  9. nako, ako, i always get lured by those!

    yeah! mga 20min walk siguro! kaso winter so kelangan pa mag-bus ngayon. thanks sa list, now i know what to look for ;)

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  10. Wahehe Meewa I used to read a lot of romance novels. :p Julia Quinn... Susan Elizabeth Phillips... Nora Roberts... Judith McNaught... wehehehe. But I'm trying to have a more balanced diet of books. That was my New Year's resolution for 2008. It's a good one to keep for next year! :)

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  11. Weeeeeh tama ka, Cass, better to halve the year-end posts. So here's part 1... abangan ang susunod! haha

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  12. Ahehe... slightly obsessed lang naman ;p I don't own a complete set of the Narnia books yet, so I don't qualify as a fully fledged obsessed fan. Pero meron nang paperback edition of all the Narnia chronicles... in one volume! Hmmm...

    Okay, will bring those two books during our next book session!

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  13. Why don't you post your own book list, Mika? :) I have a feeling you read more than me. :) In any case, you've got a head start... you're a good deal younger.

    Go C.S. Lewis! Go Philip Yancey!

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  14. Apir tayo Judie! I keep thinking that, when we have families of our own, we won't have the time to spend on our favorite activitiy. Kaya... let's enjoy our singlehood while we can! :) Read on!

    Magpost ka rin ng book list mo!

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  15. Yes yes yes I'll lend you my copy during our next book session! :) Just tell me if you fancy borrowing any other C.S. Lewis book as well.

    I highly recommend A SEVERE MERCY nga pala! Written by a contemporary of Lewis. It's about a man who draws closer to God after the death of his beloved wife T.T

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  16. i don't keep track of what books i've read, and when i've read them. i've only started reading a lot recently, thanks to the influence of our little multiply community ;) haha

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  17. I usually frequent Book Sale outlets and the excellent second hand book shops found in UP :)

    On occasion, I splurge at Fully Booked/ Powerbooks

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  18. book sale outlets? oooh, havent seen or been to one. where do have branches?

    grabe! i only recently discovered the bookstores they had in AS! great books at shockingly great prices. i now know where most of my christmas money will go. :P

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  19. Booksale outlets are available in almost all SM branches. :) Also, their warehouse is quite near where I work, hahaha, our book org visits once or twice a year.

    Yeah, as an undergrad I remember avoiding AS walk like the plague when my allowance was running low, hehe, so as to flee from the valley of temptation :p

    ganda rin ng bookstores sa shopping center!

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  20. if there's one person i know to be very voracious ( i dont know if my adjective is appropriate) with books, it is you. i dont wonder why you have the same mental string with meewa.sisters! heheh.

    you seem to really like cs lewis huh?cool. i remember making a paper on mere christianity and instead of directing it to be theological, i ended being philosophical.got a passing grade though.hehehe

    new year's resolution: "read a lot to the point of overflow." hindi kasi ako mahilig sa libro eh...itry ko nagayon na mahalin ang pagbabasa tulad nyo.hehehe

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  21. wow! 66 books not including rereads! hahaha i include rereads eh. :) sounds like you either spend more time reading than me or you read a great deal faster than me! hahaha. 44 books or so lang ako last year eh. :)

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